A manufacturing system consisting of multiple subsystems can be difficult to manage when an error occurs in a subsystem that is downstream from another subsystem that controls the input data. As an example, consider a document manufacturing system consisting of a continuous-forms printer with inline slitter, merger and stacker units, and an offline binding machine. If a paper jam occurs in the printer, the printer controller can restart printing with the sheet that was jammed once the jam has been cleared. However, if an error occurs later in the system, in the stacking unit or in the binding machine for example, the printer controller will not be aware of the sheet that caused the error or that an error even occurred. Instead, the printer controller may be actively printing a sheet that is hundreds of sheets beyond where the error occurred.
One solution to this problem requires an operator to cancel the job, discard all its sheets, and then reprint the full job. This is extremely wasteful of paper, toner, and other supplies. Another solution has the operator canceling the current job, retaining all sheets up to the error, creating and printing a new job with just the remaining sheets, and merging the original sheets with the sheets from the new job. Drawbacks of this solution are that it adds the complexity of a new print job and the problems associated with merging the new results with the old. In addition, many systems do not provide an easy way for an operator to create a new job containing only the remaining sheets.
A third solution requires the operator to manually calculate the number of sheets that have printed between the error sheet and the sheet currently printing at the printer and then instruct the printer controller to reset the print datastream to the error sheet position and begin printing again. This solution, however, requires an operator to perform a complicated calculation that is often too difficult for the operator to perform correctly, resulting in trial and error, which wastes materials and time.
Accordingly, there is a need for a way to address errors that occur downstream in a manufacturing system without requiring a new job to be created or an operator to guess where to restart the job, which results in excessive waste of time and materials. The present invention addresses such a need.